Headlines: Colombia, investigation into violence that left 13 dead and more than 400 injured
Demonstration in the streets of the Villa Luz neighborhood in Bogota, September 9, 2020. AP Photo / Ivan Valencia
Text by: Christophe Paget Follow
6 min
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It all started with a video that made the rounds on social media, in which we see a man, Javier Ordenez, tazé by the police - he receives electric shocks - eight times, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
The Colombians then took to the streets to protest, followed by violent clashes with the police in the capital and in several other major cities.
El Tiempo
obtained a video and six photos taken in the clinic where Javier Ordenez had been taken.
The newspaper does not publish the photos, at the request of the family, because they are "
hard
", but according to her they are "
key photos
".
El Tiempo
describes them: we see that the victim suffered a strong blow on the right side of the head, his right shoulder is also marked, bruises also in the neck, around the left eye, the wrists.
“
With these elements
”, explains
El Tiempo
, “
his family will try to prove that, after having received the electric shocks and having been violently beaten, Ordonez died in the police station of Villa Luz
», Contrary to what affirms, according to
El Tiempo
, one of the police officers, who maintains that the victim was alive when he arrived at the hospital.
Police and investigations
El Espectador
for his part investigated the numerous violence between demonstrators and police officers who followed the broadcast of the video.
And the newspaper is surprised that the police are now in the process of recovering in hospitals all the information concerning the many people injured (300 civilians and 165 police officers) during the clashes: name, number of identity cards, time of day. 'arrival, type of injury ... “
The problem
,
El Espectador
notes
,
is that 75 of the civilians injured were shot by guns.
And, if we trust the denunciations of the mayor (of Bogota, Ed.) And the videos circulating on social networks, the main suspects are the police.
"Collecting this information is"
legal, but raises suspicion
",
notes the newspaper, which speaks of an "
obvious mistrust of the wounded
" on the way in which this information will be used.
El Espectador
also wonders about the presence of police stations in the neighborhoods, noting that during the clashes 49 of his police stations out of 130 were destroyed - it is in one of them that Javier Ordenez was taken after his arrest.
The newspaper also recalls that for years accusations had emerged “
of inconceivable acts committed inside these police stations
;
beatings, corruption, sexual abuse, even murders
”, all this“
was one of the reasons for the anger of the demonstrators last week
”.
The FARC ask forgiveness
Also in Colombia, the former FARC guerrillas "
publicly ask forgiveness from the victims of kidnappings and their families
", an "
unprecedented
"
statement
, notes
Semana
.
"
It was a very serious mistake
", "
We stole from them the most precious possession
: their freedom and their dignity
":
Semana
as
El Espectador
uses the words of the open letter published on social networks by the leaders of the ex-FARC.
El Espectador
recalls that "
9
000 cases of people abducted between 1993 and 2012 by the FARC are given priority
;
2312 victims have come forward, and 350 ex-FARC have already reported to justice.
"
So why these excuses?
These former FARC leaders say, explains
Semana
, that "
the calm of civilian life
" has allowed them to reflect "
deeply
" on their participation in the armed conflict.
But
El Espectador
wants to clarify the circumstances of this apology: these men had been the target of criticism last week, after press revelations.
It turned out that, "
before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, they had affirmed that the recruitment of minors, another offense for which they must answer before Colombian justice, had not been a policy of the FARC
".
United States
: the science that "doesn't know" against "the climate con artist"
In the United States, fires continue to ravage the west coast.
And the fight against fire also becomes a political fight: "
Devastating fires bring climate change into the presidential campaign
", headlines the
Washington Post
.
Donald Trump, "
after weeks of silence,
" notes the
New York Times
, went to California on Monday, where he "
blamed the crisis solely on poor forest management, and not on climate change
."
And the newspaper quotes the words that the president opposed to one of his interlocutors who opposed him precisely climate change: "
I do not think that science really knows
".
Opposite, the Democratic candidate Joe Biden attacked the balance sheet of the Republican president: "
if we have four more years of this climate denial of Donald Trump, how many suburbs will still burn in these fires
?
The
New York Times
contacted former California governor Jerry Brown by phone, who asked the reporter (that's the title of the article), "
Tell me, where are we all going
?
"And Jerry Brown wonders:"
In Canada, maybe.
What is our alternative
?
Iowa
?
There are more and more tornadoes there.
In fact we are in a global crisis.
It was planned, and it is happening.
There are going to be problems all over the United States.
"
In an editorial, the
Washington Post
exclaims: "
We must vote for the future of the planet
", and the least we can say is that this editorial is not ambiguous: "
vote for Trump, c is to vote for ignorance and environmental ruin.
To vote for Biden, who has promised to immediately join the Paris Agreement if elected, is to vote for planet Earth
”.
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